Bus Confessions

The three made their way back to the bus stop, all three tired from the ordeal of the zombie barrier. While Miho happily walked along, enjoying her newfound respect for life, John and Mikuru discussed what exactly that barrier was about.

“So, uh, are necromancers common in the Abyss?” queried John.

“They tend to be shunned quite a bit, since even in the Abyss we respect ****. But some, when shown they have the power to control the dead, will decide that they are now a god, who can control life and ****. Most are content with raising an army of dead humans and abyssal monsters, with an occasional mad scientist-type that’ll try to create new undead. Sadly, we seemed to have stumbled onto one of those types. The last was a man by the name of Dr. Frankenstein, I believe a novel was made about it,” Mikuru informed John in a nonchalant tone. John, meanwhile, had his jaw hanging from his mouth. He had grown accustomed to seeing weird stuff, but finding out that some stories that he was **** to read in high school were actually real stories about crazy necromancers trying to make monsters to take over the Abyss? He could never get used to that.

“Wait, back up. You’re telling me that Dr. Frankenstein and his monster were straight up real? All that happened? And that there is an undead monster running around the world that could someday attack us?”

“Don’t be ridiculous! The Golden Order hunted down and executed both Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. They really do not like the undead and necromancers,” Mikuru quickly informed John. Well, I guess that makes sense. They seem to be about order, and I guess the dead coming back to life would be against order. Well, their idea of order anyway,* thought John as he and Mikuru continued to idly talk about necromancers, the information matching basically every video game bad guy.

“That was fuuuuuuuuuuuuun! Can we do that again sometime?” asks Miho in a far too cheery tone for what just happened. She stared at John and Mikuru, whose faces contorted to a confused look, nether quite sure if they heard Miho right.

“Wait what?” asked John.

“Miho, no,” was all Mikuru said as she sat down on the bench at the bus stop. Miho, with a dejected look on her face, plopped down next to Mikuru and rested her head on Mikuru’s shoulder. Mikuru placed her head on top of Miho’s, and the twins hugged each other. John looked at the twins and felt a tug at his heart, realizing that he nearly lost the two girls today because of his foolishness. I need to become a better fighter. Once we get back to the kingdom, I’m going to start training for the rest of the day, determined a stalwart John. He sat down next to Miho and let out a long and drawn out sigh as he put his arm around the two girls, pulling them close. The three stayed like this for five minutes until the bus arrived.

Miho was the first to get up, bounced up the steps onto the bus and made her way to the back. Mikuru was quick to follow her sister, and John, after another sigh, got up and followed the twins to the back of the bus. The twins had cuddled up next to the window and peered out of it. John, while first thinking of sitting next to them, opted instead to sit on the opposite side of the seat and stare out of that window.

“I need to check the kingdom’s computer to see if I can find some sort of training area that can be built. If I can’t, then I’ll just go outside and practice fighting against a tree or something,” John told himself. He replayed the fight in his head, over and over, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Well, I suppose making a barrier, while in pure anger was not the best of ideas. That’s what probably lead to us inadvertently invading that guy’s barrier, John figured. Running off by myself when my companions needed to rest was also a stupid move, critiqued John. John continued to pick over every little action he did for the whole bus ride home. From his attacks nearly hitting the twins, to his lashing out at them for not being able to keep up with him, his realizing that Gamer’s Body was to thank for that meant he’d have to be far more careful about excursions with his allies. If they get hurt, that is on me, John said to himself, reinforcing the idea that he needed to be more careful.

“John?” asked Mikuru, snapping John out of his thoughts and back to reality.

“Huh? What’s up Mikuru?” John asked as he turned to face the girl. He saw a look of worry on her face, whether that was for him or for her and her sister he did not know.

“Are you fine? You seem to be conflicted since the barrier,” Mikuru told John. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking of the best way to explain how he felt to her. Should he tell her about his worries of hurting her and her sister? Of his inability to protect them? Of the growing darkness in him he had been sensing and Gaia has been basically telling him with every other achievement? After a few seconds of silence, John responded to her.

“I’ve been replaying our time in the barrier and all I can see is me failing you both. I went into that barrier angry, did not care about you two, and as soon as you both became inconvenient for me, I ditched you both,” John took a quick breath as he continued venting his frustrations to his subject, “And then I pissed off some crazy necromancer who unleashed god damn abominations on us! And he made it so they spawned closer to you two rather than me! So I put you both in danger because of my arrogance!” The confession to Mikuru seemed to have taken a weight off of John’s shoulders. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as Mikuru just stared at him. Now John began to worry about why Mikuru was so silent after that confession.

“John, you made mistakes, yes, but you have learned from them. That is the most important quality a leader can have. I did come over here to see if you had learned anything from that, and if you had not, Miho and I were prepared to leave. But you have put our worries to rest, for now. So we shall continue to stay with you, as long as you continue to learn and grow,” John smiled knowing the twins would stay with him and not abandon him. After her statement, Mikuru moved back to be next to her sister but turned back to face John one last time. “Although, if you ever hurt my sister, I will end you myself,” Mikuru said in a tone that brought chills to John’s bones. He just meekly nodded to the girl to confirm he understood. Satisfied she got her message across, Mikuru patted the seat next to her. John accepted the invitation and slid over to sit next to the girls for the rest of the bus ride home.